The national airline of Russia, Aeroflot is resuming its direct flights between Moscow and Phuket according to the Spokesperson of the Prime Minister Office, Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana. The flights will start again on October 30.
The Spokesperson said that based on the information of Tourism Authority of Thailand, the direct flights will help improve the tourism for both cities, after the direct flight had been paused since March this year when Russia invaded Ukraine.
He mentioned that there have been 76,739 Russian tourists arriving in Thailand since the beginning of the year and within this year, a million tourists from Russia are expected to visit Thailand.
However he neglected to address the considerable problems that still remain for the Russian economy, including the airlines, with punitive sanctions still applying on Russian trade and import of items, including spare parts for its fleet of aircraft. All of the airline’s leased fleet would be confiscated if they were to land on foreign soils as part of the current raft of sanctions placed on Russia.
So the proposed restart of Phuket-Moscow flight will face serious challenges.
The Spokesperson said that there have been 3.12 million international tourists arriving in Phuket from January 1 – July 26 this year and Aeroflot will start selling the tickets for Moscow – Phuket on October 30, which will help increase the number of tourists in Phuket in the 4th trimester.
